


The Alchymist

by ElectraRhodes



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Art, M/M, Play trope bingo, gratuitous use of fandom tropes, metaphor and analogy, tenebrism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-20
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2019-02-17 13:25:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13077804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElectraRhodes/pseuds/ElectraRhodes
Summary: A gallery, a transformation or two, some typical barbs and lyrical lures; it’s the murder husbands on the run somewhere in Europe.My piece from the Radiance Anthology...





	The Alchymist

Will walks around a small art gallery in a provincial town somewhere in Spain. A poster for an exhibition caught Hannibal's eye earlier and he's persuaded Will to join him. 

It hadn't taken much persuasion. Will enjoys almost all of the time he spends with Hannibal, perhaps because of the stark contrast to the time he spent with Hannibal in the life Before. 

Oh, and we don't talk about those three years. Or the stabbing. Or the other stabbing. Or the ... you know what? Let's just talk about now!

'Tenebrism? Really? Why? Is this one of your visual metaphors again? I thought we said no complex metaphors.'

'The juxtaposition of light and dark? The shadows in-between? The contrast between illumination and ignorance? It's not just a metaphor, Will. It's reality. Our reality. Don't you think?'

Will wanders over to stand beside him and turns his head to one side, looking at the same picture as Hannibal. He shrugs.

'OK. So it is. Maybe. Anything here in particular, then?' 

Will looks around - the Gallery has made an effort. Even though some of the pieces are lesser works, they've pulled in some of the big names: Caravaggio; Gentileschi; Rembrandt; de Coster. Hannibal shuffles along a bit and stands in front of a medium-sized painting.

'Joseph Wright of Derby. I've always been rather attached to this image.'

Will comes over and looks at the small notice by the painting.

'"The Alchymist"?' 

Uh huh.

'OK. Nice. Why?'

'It has always affected me.'

Will looks at Hannibal. He does get all Grand Guignol about things. He can't just like something. It's operatic gesture and over the top emotion. And the big reveal. Will smiles. It's quite endearing, really. Hannibal the Cannibal? Hannibal the Great Big Drama Queen more like.

'All right, love, I'll bite. Is this why you wanted to see the exhibition? It was on the poster.'

Will knows that Hannibal knows when Will is indulging him, but he'll take it.

'I've seen it once before, in New York at the Met, it must be nearly thirty years ago. It impressed itself on me even then.'

Will sighs. Oh God, it's going to be one of those conversations.

'OK. What especially?'

'Everything. The composition, the light, the painting itself, the expressive bearing of the figures, the awe.' 

Hannibal gestures expansively. Will glances around. Good job there's no one else in the Gallery. This is going to be like the Baltimore sessions isn't it?

Will has this sort of mental Rolodex, and yeah he gets the irony of that, there are different kinds of Hannibal conversations:

1\. There's the "I'm In Prison And You're Not" - The Will Months interrogations, 

2\. The "I'm In Prison And You're Not - And You Left Me All Alone" - The Hannibal Years discourses, For Years Mind You! Years!

3\. There are the "You Pushed Us Off A Cliff" indignant discussions. Actually more like “The Hannibal Monologues". 

4\. The Baltimore therapy "Fuck Knows What That Was All About" conversations. 

5\. The "I'm Going To Seduce You One Way Or Another And Then Stab You" remarks.

And now more often: 

6\. The "What Would You Like For Lunch, And By The Way I Do Love You" confessions. 

Will kind of likes the last version. But if there's going to be a different kind, the Baltimore therapy style isn't the worst. By a long way. 

He sits on one of the benches in the centre of the gallery facing the picture. Facing Hannibal. 

In a minute or two he'll have to get up and walk around. It never feels right having this kind of conversation unless they're both circling the room. It's a little ritual of theirs. 

If he doesn't Hannibal will get all grumpy. Best not provoke that. Will takes a deep breath.

'All right then. So, are they witnesses to an impossible transformation? Something base into something pure?'

Hannibal smiles. Good, he does like it when an intellectual gauntlet is thrown down. 

'We are all capable of change'

Nice riposte.

'We are, but most of us don't. We start out in one way and keep going. It's harder than you think to reverse or turn around.' 

And don't I have the scars to prove it? And yeah, yeah, scars have the power to remind us who we are. Our histories. And to hurt! People forget that bit. They itch too. Sometimes. 

Will wriggles. Hannibal frowns. Oops. 

Don't wriggle, otherwise we'll end up in the whole 'what are you doing that makes you uncomfortable Will?' deflection. Has he stopped wriggling in time? 

'We are attached in the West to a linear development of the self.'

Phew. Yes, did stop wriggling in time. 

Will jumps up. Hannibal walks over to the bench that Will has vacated, Will walks around a bit and Hannibal sits and swivels to follow him.

'So we find it hard to let go of what we think are advances, even when they're dead ends?'

Will is sure they've had this conversation before, especially as Hannibal next offers, 'People cling stubbornly to patterns of behaviour that do not serve them, have not served them, can only hold them back.'

Yep, he's definitely heard this before. OK, let's try, 

'There's comfort in sameness. Repeats and rituals, habits. Comfort and peace.'

'Then I would rather have war.' 

And there it is. His mic drop. 

Apparently, Barney, the orderly at the BSHCI, had had to explain to Hannibal what a mic drop was. He clearly likes the rhetorical flourish. A lot. 

In his and Will's more abstruse conversations he tries to finish off with one every time. Unless Will manages to get in first.

'Somehow I'm not surprised by that.' 

And there he goes. Hannibal frowns a little. He clearly thought it was a good one too.

Will steps closer to the picture, he decides to up the game, just when Hannibal thinks it is done. Got to keep the good doctor interested. 

'Where do you see yourself in this picture?'

'An interesting question. Most likely the assistant, the witness to what is becoming.'

Will pursues the idea.

'Not the scientist, the alchemist?'

'I do not compel the transformation, or release it.' 

Will smiles. Hannibal is all sure-footing and certainty. He's thought about Will's radical change quite a lot, thank you. He has a nice little thesis all written out. Freddie Lounds would love it. But Hannibal guesses correctly that Will might be a bit annoyed. The pictures had been bad enough.

'Uh huh. Not the fuel then either?'

'The energetic rush of carbon and oxygen, battling for dominance? Possibly. I am always interested in which element will emerge triumphant.'

Will says quietly,

'We had water before.' 

He's stopped on the other side of the room looking across it towards the painting, beyond Hannibal.

Hannibal smiles and reminds him 'And earth won.' 

Despite everything, they made it from the bloody cold Atlantic onto dry land and neither of them managed to die. Not for want of Will trying. But maybe this shouldn't turn into the "You Pushed Us Off A Cliff" thing.

'Yeah. Born of blood and bone, and terrible grace.' 

Hannibal isn't the only one with a theory about what happened that revelatory day. Will's version is a bit more tortured. It's been hard to get a grip on what he thinks since he's been in Hannibal's company almost all day every day ever since. 

He might have been changed physically quite a bit, and even his thinking might have changed but his empathy is still doing its thing. He works quite hard to think his own thoughts. 

His internal voice doesn't only sound like Hannibal any more. And thank God for that. Because, really? Eastern European intellectual psychiatrist is not the most restful cadence or ideolect when you want to sleep.

'Is that what you think, Will, are you reborn?'

'I'm still gestating. An imago.'

'You have all the elements you need.'

'You said that to me before.'

'I still believe it to be true.'

Will looks again at the painting. 

The alchemist stretches his hand out to hold back the other witness, a younger man. On their faces are impressions of wonder, amazement, awe, and something very like possibility. They look together into a space created by the bliss and blaze of transformation. And it is true that that's what he sees when he looks at Hannibal looking at him.

Will sees that Hannibal is on his feet again. OK, good. Time for another circuit. This might mean they're into the final exchanges. All right then.

'I feel like I'm the part that is created in the spaces in-between. Violently claiming and occupying. I push things out of the world so I can be in it, as I am.'

'You used to give ground.'

Oh, that is good. He's working hard for the last few metaphors. Will has to hand it to him, Hannibal has never met a metaphor he didn't want to club to death with a sharp stag. 

'"Soon all of this will be lost to the sea" I remember you saying that too.'

'And was it?'

'I have changed. I know that.' 

Always a good idea to let Hannibal know he's winning the argument. Will likes to give him a little signal of some kind, just so he can conserve the ammo. You know? Still they're not quite into the home strait. He gestures again at the painting. 

'What do you think the elements experience? To be changed in this way? Do they remember what they were before? Does the gold regret it has lost its lead-ness?'

'Do you regret?' 

Ahh, he's still on this then. Hannibal manages to get this topic in usually once every few days. He just can't quite believe that Will is willingly with him. He has to keep checking it out. 

Kind of sweet really. For a ridiculous cannibal serial-killer murdering gas-lighting drugging... Nope, better not to go there either.

'No. But I do remember. I like being gold better' 

Will smiles at Hannibal sweetly. All right then. This conversation is going well. Looks like it's going to reach an ending and no one is going to get stabbed or chucked over a cliff or anything. Good. Well then, let's see what's next.

'Something valued.'

'I think you valued me when I was "lead" too.' 

Oh, this is a nice little lure. Here, fishy fishy. Hannibal's good with this. He likes knowing that he is unique in all the world for seeing Will as he really is.

'Because I could see the potential in you?' 

Ta dah. See. See. Will has to not smile.

'Sure. But you also wanted to see what would happen. You were willing to assist. But I had to do the work.'

Yeah, yeah, all right. Will still needs these little reminders that it was his choice, nobody forced him to do any of those things. And yeah, all right, Will was positively gleeful about Bedelia, 

'You are your own creation.'

'In as much as I chose and would choose again. Yes. I'm not sorry, Hannibal. I wanted this, want this. The picture suggests the translation into something new won't hold. But I'm holding, Hannibal. All of it. You, me, together, fuelling transformation of those who are worthy. Us. In the end you were right.' 

Yup, yup, nearly there, nearly there.

'Blood and breath are only elements undergoing change to fuel your radiance?'

'It's what I believe. It's what we make true. Every day' 

And here it is, the final sally. It's going so well...

'You are radiant, Will, beautiful.' 

Aww, he's so sweet really.

'No. We are.' 

Will smiles widely at Hannibal. OK. Still good. Happy Murder Husbands. Wait for it, wait for it, wait for it, yes..

Hannibal smiles.

'Mylimasis'

And yes! Lithuanian! And we're done. High five everyone.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you, thank you to all who backed the Kickstarter, and to all who are reading.. 
> 
> And a big warm loving heart full of thanks to Romina and Jamie.


End file.
